The KRE Group has landed funding for the second phase of its massive Jersey City rental development.

The firm secured $258 million in construction financing, KRE said in a state ment Friday. Wells Fargo and Capital One provided the loan.

The funding will be used for Tower Two at Journal Squared, a mixed-use project comprised of three buildings with 1,840 rental units in total. Tower Two will stand 71 stories tall, with 704 residences, and is slated to open in 2021.

“The closing of this loan signifies another important milestone for the Journal Squared development,” Jonathan Kushner, president of KRE Group, said in the statement. “Construction of the second tower is already well underway and we look forward to bringing it to completion.”

Construction underway for Jersey City’s Journal Squared

December 13, 2018

Vertical construction is underway for Journal Squared, a luxury high-rise building project in Jersey City. The tower will stand at 71 stories and provide 1672 m2 (18,000 sf) of retail space with a gross of almost 92,903 m2 (1 million sf).

The building is the second in a three-tower complex that will feature 704 residential units. Dresdner Robin is providing environmental investigation, planning, civil engineering, and survey services for the project.

New York federal prosecutors subpoenaed Kushner Companies, the real estate development company owned by the family of President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, over its use of a visa program that offers green cards to wealthy foreign investors.

The subpoena was received by Kushner Companies in May, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, and regards the company's use of the EB-5 visa program to finance a development in Jersey City, N.J. called One Journal Square.

It isn't clear what potential violations the Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office is looking into.

The EB-5 visa program offers green cards to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in U.S. businesses that would create at least 10 permanent, full-time jobs for American workers.

The company launched a marketing campaign in Beijing and Shanghai in May seeking Chinese investors. That campaign promised green cards for as many as 300 people who invested the requisite $500,000 in One Journal Square.

Kushner Companies came under fire in May after Kushner's sister Nicole Meyer, a principal at the company, mentioned her brother's service in the Trump administration during a pitch to investors in Beijing.

The company later apologized for the remarks and said that Meyer's statement was not intended to use Kushner's work in the Trump administration to attract investors.

Jared Kushner's status as a top aide to President Donald Trump was used to lure Chinese investors to his family's New Jersey development, even after his family's company apologized for mentioning his name during a sales pitch in May, CNN has found.

References to Kushner are part of online promotions by two businesses that are working with Kushner Companies to find Chinese investors willing to invest in the 1 Journal Square development in exchange for a US visa.

The promotions are posted in Chinese and refer to Kushner Companies as "real estate heavyweights," going on to mention "the celebrity of the family is 30-something 'Mr. Perfect' Jared Kushner, who once served as CEO of Kushner Companies."

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has called for an investigation into "potentially fraudulent statements and misrepresentations" made by companies promoting investment in a property development involving the family company of White House advisor Jared Kushner.

Citing a May 12 report by Reuters, Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator from Iowa, requested a review of claims made by Chinese migration agency Qiaowai and the U.S. Immigration Fund (USIF) in the marketing of the One Journal Square project in Jersey City, New Jersey to potential investors in China....Criticism of the program has centered on instances of fraud and the fact that most of the funds in a program originally intended to help impoverished areas have instead gone to wealthy urban districts....http://www.reuters.com/article/us-chi ... ner-qiaowai-idUSKBN18P0J9

Now if President Trump had put that program in place-that'd be a story! But it's been an ongoing program for years, with great benefits for construction jobs that may not have existed if funding for buildings wasn't there. Another mouseburger story, and calling it 'controversial' while it's been in existence since 1990-and Obama didn't seem to mind it.

President Trump kept the government open recently by signing a $1.1 trillion appropriations bill, and tucked into that 1,665-page monstrosity was one paragraph that enables wealthy foreigners to buy American citizenship.

The next day, Nicole Kushner Meyer addressed an audience in a Ritz-Carlton ballroom in Beijing, where she used that wee item in the spending bill - which extends the controversial EB-5 visa program through September - to help rich Chinese investors obtain green cards and fast-track their American dream.

All it takes was a half-million bucks, which Ms. Kushner Meyer would plunge in her company's luxury apartment towers in Jersey City.

Remember how Trump said we'd never have to worry about whether his family's global business interests would influence how he governs?

Green cards were "guaranteed" for potential mega-investors in a Kushner project in Jersey City's Journal Square, but the "green'' had nothing to do with solar energy, according to a new report on the project.

Rather, it referred to $500,000 from Chinese investors looking to get visas through the controversial EB-5 visa program, The New York Times reports.

Potential investors were told it was a virtual certainty to work, the newspaper said, because of the project's ties to President Trump and the first family.

"They said the president would make sure it came through," the Times quoted Lu Ling, a technology executive in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, as saying. "They said there was no chance it could fail."

I hope the project stalls for a long time. We are over-developing. If you think trains are packed already heading into grove and onto the city, just wait until all of these new projects in Journal Square are filled with people. More people with no new infrastructure.

citybooster wrote:This is the wrong thread for this subject as it pertains to KRE's Journal Squared, NOT KABR's One Journal Square.

Well the thread is for Journal Squared, but the article referenced 1 JSQ which is the empty vacant lot. Regardless, the point is that the property has been vacant for far too long. But youre correct. Wrong thread.

I pushed 8 years ago, to turn this site into a large scale outdoor flea market which is in a great location due to the access to the PATH. I was told the site was owned and would be turned over for development very soon. That was 8 years ago. I think its time to revisit new options for that site again.

Interesting to see how this plays out. I find it hard to believe that Fulop was unaware of this. Remember... " In Jersey City, where Kushner Cos. has invested in five major projects in recent years, both Jared and his father have a close relationship with Mayor Steve Fulop. Fulop has received glowing coverage in the New York Observer, and as the Kushners were developing Trump Tower in Jersey City in 2014, they hired one of Fulop’s closest political strategists to work as an expediter on the project."

Monroe wrote:Somehow people get riled up over foreigners putting up half a million dollars to invest in the US, but support other foreigners swimming across the Rio Grande with their hands out. Amazing.

You know why. Because those with their hands out will vote Democrat at some point.

The Kushner Project Touted in China Is in Trouble at Home

When Jared Kushner’s sister took the stage in two Chinese ballrooms over the weekend to urge investors to fund a New Jersey development through a controversial visa program, she mentioned her brother’s role in the White House and displayed a photo of President Donald Trump. It was a not-so-subtle signal that hers is a family company with connections.

What she didn’t mention was that the project has suffered a slew of problems: the exit of its anchor tenant, the loss of millions in tax breaks and a curdling political relationship with the mayor of its host city.

The previously unreported exit by tenant WeWork -- which is also expected to sell its stake in the project -- as well as the mayor’s shift, add up to a sharp reversal of fortunes that led the family company to do what it has done before: seek Chinese investors.

Kushner Companies apologizes for pitch to Chinese investors

Kushner Companies, the development firm formerly run by presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, apologized today for statements made in Beijing regarding the One Journal Square project in Jersey City.

Nicole Kushner Meyer, Kushner's sister, mentioned her brother at a conference for wealthy Chinese investors as she tried to convince them to invest in the $821 million, two-tower project.

"In the course of discussing this project and the firm's history with potential investors, Ms. Meyer wanted to make clear that her brother had stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project," the company said in a statement. "Kushner Companies apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Ms. Meyer's intention."

No tax break for Kushner towers, Fulop says

JERSEY CITY -- A long-term city tax break sought by a company with ties to Jared Kushner, son-in-law and adviser to President Trump, will not be supported by the city, Mayor Steve Fulop announced this weekend.

bodhipooh wrote:Seriously, how is this news? The EB5 visas have been around for a long time, and they are a vehicle used by many developers all over the US to get projects financed and completed. Heck, most of Miami's real estate boom was fueled by foreign money generated through the EB-5 visa allure. Or, how else do you think all those wealthy Mexicans and Venezuelansin Miami got their LPR and citizenship status??

If you disagree with LPR/citizenship granted to someone willing to invest half a mil in the US, then reach out to your congressman/woman and your senators. Meanwhile, there is nothing wrong or nefarious in what the Kushners are doing. It's the same thing all savvy developers are doing: wooing foreign capital to fund projects.

People are complaining because it's an obvious conflict of interest when the developer offering visa's for investment $$$$ is a Kushner and related to our moron president.

How is it a conflict of interest? People often throw that concept around with regards to situations they don't like. But, there's only a conflict of interest if the person or organization is involved in multiple interests and one could unduly influence one of the others. In this case, where's the conflict?

No developer is issuing visas, and they are not involved in the process of approving visas. Developers hold seminars in which they explain to wealthy people that if they are willing to spend upwards of 500K in their projects, the person would be entitled to apply for the EB5 visa. At that point, the developer is looking for money and providing information that could entice someone to give them some. If a wealthy investor is willing to part with a large sum, that person could invest it on the project being pitched to him, or any other project, and after doing so he (or, his lawyer or representative) can then apply to DHS for an EB5 visa. At that point, it is up to USCIS to approve or deny that request. The investor visas are capped annually, and the applicants still have to satisfy a few other requirements. Regardless, the assigned case officer will make a determination. So, again, where's the conflict of interest? Trump is not sitting in the Oval Office approving visa applications, the developer is not selling visas, and this is done by a lot of developers.

USCIS falls under the president's purview as he appoints the head of DHS.

All other things behind equal, if a foreign investor has the choice between investing in a Kushner project or any other random developer's project, there is a chance they would pick the Kushners with the idea that the family's close ties to the president could improve their chances of getting an EB-5 visa. Jared Kushner's sister proudly mentioned his association with Trump during the presentation to investors.

It doesn't matter whether any actual wrongdoing occurs during the EB-5 review & approval process. At the end of the day, the Kushners stand to profit because of their association with Trump.

In a normal times, a prudent developer would probably steer clear of such a strong appearance of a conflict of interest. However, time and again the Trump administration has shown its flagrant disregard for traditional ethical norms. The Kushners might as well cash in on the gravy train.

bodhipooh wrote:Seriously, how is this news? The EB5 visas have been around for a long time, and they are a vehicle used by many developers all over the US to get projects financed and completed. Heck, most of Miami's real estate boom was fueled by foreign money generated through the EB-5 visa allure. Or, how else do you think all those wealthy Mexicans and Venezuelansin Miami got their LPR and citizenship status??

If you disagree with LPR/citizenship granted to someone willing to invest half a mil in the US, then reach out to your congressman/woman and your senators. Meanwhile, there is nothing wrong or nefarious in what the Kushners are doing. It's the same thing all savvy developers are doing: wooing foreign capital to fund projects.

People are complaining because it's an obvious conflict of interest when the developer offering visa's for investment $$$$ is a Kushner and related to our moron president.

How is it a conflict of interest? People often throw that concept around with regards to situations they don't like. But, there's only a conflict of interest if the person or organization is involved in multiple interests and one could unduly influence one of the others. In this case, where's the conflict?

No developer is issuing visas, and they are not involved in the process of approving visas. Developers hold seminars in which they explain to wealthy people that if they are willing to spend upwards of 500K in their projects, the person would be entitled to apply for the EB5 visa. At that point, the developer is looking for money and providing information that could entice someone to give them some. If a wealthy investor is willing to part with a large sum, that person could invest it on the project being pitched to him, or any other project, and after doing so he (or, his lawyer or representative) can then apply to DHS for an EB5 visa. At that point, it is up to USCIS to approve or deny that request. The investor visas are capped annually, and the applicants still have to satisfy a few other requirements. Regardless, the assigned case officer will make a determination. So, again, where's the conflict of interest? Trump is not sitting in the Oval Office approving visa applications, the developer is not selling visas, and this is done by a lot of developers.

China has massive capital outflows right now. A lot of that money is going into real estate. The goal is not to make a good return but to avoid losing everything (which will happen if the money stays in China).